Approximately 25 survive today. The proposed vehicle marque would represent the start-up of a new division of the firm alongside that of Ford itself and the Lincoln-Mercury division, whose cars at the time shared the same bodies. The last year for the failed automobile looks completely different from the first two years of manufacturing. Our product picks are editor-tested, expert-approved. This design was similar to Chevrolet's 348-cubic-inch "W" engine, which was also introduced in 1958. Henry Ford , US car manufacturer, his grandson Henry Ford II and son Edsel Ford , three generations of Fords, pose for a photographer 05 April 1939... Trusteeship established in 1935 puts Mrs. Edsel Ford in techinical control of the huge Ford empire. [10] In place of a horizontal strip or a round dial, the speedometer was a rotating dome; in line with aircraft design, the dashboard adopted warning lights for conditions as low oil level, parking brake engaged, and engine overheating. Many others compared the grille's shape to a toilet seat.[26]. Ford dubbed Sept. 4, 1957, the day the Edsel debuted, as "E-Day" and spent the year leading up to it pushing a teaser campaign for the new brand and the new car. Some drivers inadvertently shifted gears when they intended to sound the horn. We may earn a commission through links on our site. Uninstalled parts were placed in the trunks along with installation instructions for dealership mechanics, some of whom never installed the additional parts at all. Our pals at Regular Car Reviews got into the history of Edsel in a new documentary podcast. Only trouble is, they couldn't come up with a good name. Following the widely negative response to the exterior design, Ford stylists toned down the appearance of the exterior body panels. Reports of mechanical flaws with the cars surfaced, due primarily to lack of quality control and confusion of parts with other Ford models. Among domestic makes, only Rambler and Lincoln produced more cars in 1958 than in 1957. Engineers, fearing engine cooling problems, vetoed the intended design, so a ring design was suggested. Ford in the 1950s was nothing if not ambitious. The motor was also not powerful enough to bring the car out of Park while on a hill, so dealerships would instruct drivers to set the parking brake before pushing the Park button. For 1962, the full-size Meteor was discontinued, with Mercury shifting the nameplate to its newly-introduced intermediate car line (becoming a counterpart of the Ford Fairlane through 1963). The name of the car, Edsel, is also often cited as a further reason for its lack of popularity. Ford's investment in expanded plant capacity and additional tooling for Edsels helped make the company's subsequent success with the Falcon possible.[23]. THE EDSEL FORD SPEEDSTER. Originally intended to be released as the 1960 Corsair, only 31 units were produced. Ford also ran internal studies to decide on a name, and even dispatched employees to stand outside movie theaters to poll audiences as to what their feelings were on several ideas. McNamara also moved to reduce Edsel's advertising budget for 1959, and for 1960, he virtually eliminated it. Theoretically, Edsels were conceived to fit into Ford's marketing structure as a mid-price model, with the brand slotted in between Ford and Mercury. Car buyers didn’t purchase the Edsel, because it was a bad or ugly car. Workers assembling Fords and Mercurys often found the task of assembling the occasional Edsel that moved down the line burdensome, because it required them to change tools and parts bins, then switch back to resume assembling Fords or Mercurys after completing assembly on Edsels. Independent manufacturers in the medium-priced field were drifting to insolvency. In January 1958, the free-standing Edsel division was added to Lincoln-Mercury, with the re-christened Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln Division (M-E-L) adopting Edsel sales and marketing operations. The Edsel -- named for Edsel Ford, Henry Ford's son who died of cancer in 1943 -- was the subject of an intense marketing blitz while still on the drawing board. Yat Ming, a producer of diecast model cars, offered a nicely detailed 1958 Citation in 1/18 scale in both hardtop and convertible body styles. Unfortunately, this ambition gave birth to the Edsel, whose name became synonymous with abject corporate failure after the nascent brand was killed in 1959. There was one four-door Citation model purchased and delivered in October 1957 to the United Kingdom for the Duke of Bedford. 11m left. Find Edsel at the best price. Ford issued a statement that it would distribute coupons to customers who purchased 1960 models (and carryover 1959 models) prior to the announcement, valued at $300 to $400 toward the purchase of new Ford products to offset the decreased values. While Edsels were fast, the location of the transmission pushbuttons was not conducive to street racing. With a network of 1,187 Edsel dealers, Ford Motor Company now had approximately 10,000 dealerships between its three divisions, bringing it closer in line with Chrysler (10,000 dealers across four brands) and General Motors (16,000 across six brands). Henry Ford II declared that he did not want his father's good name spinning around on thousands of hubcaps. Jan 14, 2021 - Explore chris manosis's board "EDSEL THE CAR", followed by 113 people on Pinterest. The interior saw several 1958 features to increase its commonality with Ford. The Edsel's short history makes a fascinating cautionary tale for anyone in business–not just the car industry. "The Edsel: Forty Years as a Symbol of Failure,", This page was last edited on 9 February 2021, at 17:42. Even though Edsels shared basic technology with other Ford cars of the era, a number of issues caused reliability problems, mostly with the 1958 models. However, the charge continued to be leveled against McNamara for years.
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